Chapter 378.2: Group Photo: The Martial God of Ten Thousand Paths

Qi Yuan turned back to an anthill, staring at it with earnest concentration while muttering, "Enough of this nonsense. I need to keep perceiving the myriad dao. Time is short!"

Xie Xinsu stood to the side, deeply unimpressed. Who meditates on the Great Dao by staring at an anthill?

Qi Yuan appeared to have had a breakthrough. "I understand now. Someone poured molten iron down this tunnel."

"Mrow. Mrow. Mrow."

Xie Xinsu stared at him. Yeah, so? That’s it?

She wanted to roast her foolish master a little.

Just then, Zero-One grabbed Xie Xinsu by the neck with pure disdain. "Come on, Internet Celebrity, time to film a video. All of your followers are dead. You can't even get a handful of likes per day."

Zero-One was just stating facts. At the beginning, Xie Xinsu had plenty of fans. A cat who could dance and cook was genuinely popular in the modern world.

However, all of that changed when the cultivators arrived, and the spirit beasts appeared. Creatures capable of speaking the human language and flying through the sky completely outshone Xie Xinsu. Above all, time was merciless. Most of Xie Xinsu’s fans had died of old age.

No new fans, while the old ones were all dead. Some had even become zombie followers [1]in the literal sense. Now, even the money Zero-One earned from making videos wasn't enough to buy cat food.

As Qi Yuan contemplated the dao, Xie Xinsu continued acting, with Zero-One behind the camera. Time flowed gently onward.

***

One day, Zero-One glanced at Qi Yuan, who was now studying a hollow in a tree. She asked softly, "Master, the three of us have never taken a group photo together. Should we?"

Qi Yuan pinched a leaf over the hollow and walked toward Zero-One. "Oh, a group photo? Sure, why not."

Zero-One scrambled to set up a camera she retrieved from somewhere, moving with urgent, almost flustered energy. Clearly, she wasn't planning to become the photographer for this shot.

Under the deep night sky, Qi Yuan stood in his blood-red robes on the grassy field. He had a warm and easy smile. Zero-One held Xie Xinsu, her own smile mirroring his. Zero-One programmed the camera's lighting sequence in the dark night. Just then, a soft and clear beam of moonlight descended, landing precisely on Qi Yuan.

The moonlight was pure and bright. The Milky Way stretched across the sky. Silence engulfed the whole place. The only sound was the camera's shutter.

Click!

A photograph froze the moment in place.

Qi Yuan tilted his head up, curiosity flickering in his eyes. "That moonlight came fast and left even faster."

The shaft of moonlight had swept in with unusual haste, as if its sole purpose had been to light him from above.

Zero-One gazed at the sky as well. "Perhaps the moon has fallen for Master as well, trying to introduce you to its dao."

Qi Yuan laughed softly. "If I were that irresistible, shouldn't the Myriad Dao have introduced itself to me by now? Let me see which one I'd actually like."

Zero-One's eyes lit up with delight. "Master, the myriad dao is about to do just that."

"Oh?" Qi Yuan glanced at her, a note of anticipation in his gaze. "You mean?"

"Yes, it's exactly what you're thinking, Master. Long ago, the myriad dao was transformed into data and hidden within the ruins. All this time, I have been absorbing and organizing it. At last, I can deliver the myriad dao to you in full, Master."

Qi Yuan couldn't help but praise her, "Excellent! As expected of my clever and capable robot."

At the same time, a thoughtful look crossed his face, but he soon dismissed it. Thinking too hard grew extra brain cells, which was unnecessary.

"What is the Myriad Dao?"

Zero-One reached out her hand. Qi Yuan extended his as well, and their fingers interlaced.

"The myriad dao are zeros and ones."[2]

In that instant, an endless torrent of information flooded Qi Yuan's mind. He seemed to see that within the Mountain-Sea Scroll, Luo Bufan knelt with a peaceful expression, free of all regret. He seemed to see a half-flower demon girl standing on a flower boat, wearing a cold, manic smile.

He seemed to see ten thousand demons surrounding a lone city. A man stood guard alone, eating a bun filled with human flesh. After the ten thousand demons were slain, he cut every scrap of his own flesh before a grave.

Countless images and endless scenes flowed from within the Mountain-Sea Scroll.

Human hearts. Flames. Schemes. Obsessions—an infinite number of dao that was as vast as mountains and seas surged inward.

"The Human Dao! The Spirit Dao! The Orbital Dao fixed in its track! The Heavenly Dao beyond the heavens!"

Countless great daos, chaotic and disorderly, flooded into him. Though they seemed false, they felt real. At this moment, Qi Yuan understood completely. Dong Jun had prepared the myriad dao for his so-called dao companion. Or rather, they were his contingency plan. After all, to accept the myriad dao was to truly become entangled in the mortal world, and believe that oneself was Dong Jun's dao companion.

Like murals described in the ancient texts, memories that did not belong to him flooded Qi Yuan’s mind. Fragments of the Mountain-Sea Scroll swirled through Qi Yuan's mind, as though insisting that he was Dong Jun's dao companion.

"Interesting. My nose is this long, and you're still telling me it's real? Dong Jun, you are desperately thirsty. I am not your dao companion!"

The infinite visions came crashing over him.

Qi Yuan stood with his robes billowing. "The dao is vast and boundless, I cut through it all! My dao is forgetting! My dao is slaughter!"

A single slash shook heaven and earth, reducing every fragment to ash. In the middle of the most ordinary moment imaginable, the myriad dao opened its mouth to introduce itself, and Qi Yuan stepped into the Martial God of Ten Thousand Paths realm.

Zero-One smiled brightly. "Congratulations, Master. You have entered the Martial God of Ten Thousand Paths realm. The game is nearing completion."

Qi Yuan remained calm. "I need to go meet Dong Jun. I'm not sure whether I'll be coming back."

He paused. "If I've left a car parked somewhere, help me pay the parking fee. Go handle my phone’s subscription as well. How much would that rack up if I don’t come back?"

"Master, you don't have a car."

"That's a little sad. Looks like this world won't have a security guard emperor waiting for me in the churning mortal world after all [3]."

1. A zombie follower usually means a fake, inactive, or dormant social media account that follows a user profile without ever viewing, liking, commenting, or engaging with content. ☜

2. Data is inherently stored as 0s and 1s like bits. So when Zero-One hands over the data to Qi Yuan, it is inherently 0s and 1s. ☜

3. This line references a popular trope in Chinese urban fantasy web novels and vertical short-form mini-dramas about a hidden identity, urban immortal cultivation, or the supreme sovereign reincarnated/banished into a lowly job. ☜